The video quality isn't great; who cares, it's vintage! I was inspired to look up this 1988 performance after reading a review of Kristin Hersh's memoir Rat Girl, which chronicles Hersh's busy professional and personal lives in 1985 and '86. I'll be picking up a copy. (NYT)
“Rat Girl” is sensitive and emotionally raw, which figures; it’s also wildly funny, which didn’t figure at all, since the Muses were never big on humor. Hersh, now a solo artist, has a generous adult affection for her adolescent self. She started the band with her stepsister, Tanya Donelly (who later fronted the successful ’90s band Belly), and in the year chronicled here played with the bassist Leslie Langston and the drummer David Narcizo, the group’s token boy. Having suffered a concussion in a car accident, Hersh grew up hearing music (“sound tapping me on the shoulder”) and believed her songs were psychic revelations. This was no secret — like her teen-mom back story, it was a crucial part of her mystique. Hersh was a messed-up kid, just like her fans, except far more confident. When I caught a Throwing Muses show on Valentine’s Day 1987, in a college dining hall, it was the first time I’d ever seen a rock band with three women up front, as well as the first time I’d seen a singer keep her eyes shut tight all the way through every song. She apparently didn’t even notice we were there — and that seemed indescribably cool.
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